Popularity of content items

ABSTRACT

Search results may be yielded based on a search query. A search query inspired by a user may be received. Based on the search query, multiple search results each including links may be determined. The multiple search results may include a first search result that includes a link to a first digital instance that describes or embodies a first content item, and a second search result that includes a link to a second digital instance that describes or embodies a second content item. A perceived popularity may be assessed for each of the first and second content items. The perceived popularity may be a measure of the popularity of the first and second content items, and may be distinct from a popularity of the first and second digital instances. A presentation of the multiple search results may be determined based on the accessed perceived popularity.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/750,202,filed Jan. 25, 2013 (now allowed), which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/555,526, filed Nov. 1, 2006, now U.S.Pat. No. 8,364,669, which claims the benefit of U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 60/820,017, filed Jul. 21, 2006 and U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 60/821,356, filed Aug. 3, 2006. The entire contents ofthe above-referenced applications are expressly incorporated herein byreference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This description relates to popularity of electronic content items.

BACKGROUND

Users seeking information can search for the information on theInternet. To do so, the user enters a search query into a search engine.In response, the user receives search results that are relevant to thesearch query. If the user seeks search results in a particular contenttype or format, such as, for example, audio or video search results, auser can include one of the words “audio” or “video” in the search queryalong with words that relate to the content the user seeks.

SUMMARY

In a general aspect, search results are yielded based on a search query.A search query inspired by a user is received. Based on the searchquery, multiple search results, each including links, are determined. Afirst search result includes a link to a first digital instance thatdescribes or embodies a first content item and a second search resultincludes a link to a second digital instance that describes or embodiesa second content item. A perceived popularity is assessed for each ofthe first and second content items. The perceived popularity is ameasure of the popularity of the first and second content items and isdistinct from a popularity of the first and second digital instancesthat describes or embodies each of the first and second content items. Apresentation of the multiple search results is determined based on theaccessed perceived popularity.

With respect to at least the general aspect, implementations may includeone or more of the following features. For example, the multiple searchresults may be displayed to the user based on the determinedpresentation.

A genre related to the search query inspired by the user may bereceived. A genre-specific catalog that is associated with the genre maybe identified. The genre-specific catalog may be accessed. One or morecontent items stored within the genre-specific catalog that are relatedto the determined multiple search results may be identified. Assessingthe perceived popularity for the search results may include accessing aperceived popularity for each of the identified one or more contentitems from within the genre-specific catalog.

An indication of a genre may be received. Multiple search results thatare associated with the genre may be identified. A genre-specificcatalog specific to the genre may be accessed. One or more content itemsmay be identified from within the genre-specific catalog that relate tothe identified multiple search results. A perceived popularity for theidentified one or more content items may be assessed. The presentationof the multiple search results may be determined based on the assessedperceived popularity.

One content item may be selected from among the one or more contentitems stored within the genre-specific catalog. A perceived popularityfor the content item may be formed based on information associated withthe content item. Popularity search results may be determined bysearching private and public networks for digital instances that includeinformation that satisfies the popularity query. A perceived popularitymay be generated for the content item based on the popularity searchresults. The generated perceived popularity may be associated with thecontent item. The association may be stored in the genre-specificcatalog.

Generating a perceived popularity for the content item may includedetermining a raw popularity score based at least in part on a number ofpopularity search results received, using a classifier to analyze atleast some of the received popularity search results, determining anumber of popularity search results related to the genre of the catalogbased on the analysis performed by the classifier, determining anambiguity ratio that may include the determined number of popularitysearch results that are related to the genre of the catalog and thenumber of received popularity search results analyzed by the classifier,and generating a perceived popularity for the content item based on theraw popularity score and the ambiguity ratio.

The content item may be a song. The content item may be a musical album,which may be an electronic organization of songs.

Generating a perceived popularity for the musical album may includeidentifying songs related to the musical album, determining a perceivedpopularity for each of the songs, determining a preliminary perceivedpopularity for the musical album as a whole, and determining theperceived popularity for the musical album based on the perceivedpopularity for each of the songs and the preliminary perceivedpopularity for the musical album as a whole. The preliminary perceivedpopularity for the musical album as a whole may be based on popularityof the musical album without regard to popularity of individual songsincluded on the musical album.

The content item may be a musical artist, which may include one or morepeople who write or perform music.

Generating a perceived popularity for the musical artist may includeidentifying songs related to the musical artist, identifying musicalalbums related to the musical artist, determining if the musical artistmay be popular for a non-music related reason, and determiningindividual attributes related to the non-music related reason,determining a perceived popularity for each of the songs, determining aperceived popularity for each of the musical albums, determining aperceived popularity for the musical artist based on the individualattributes related to the non-music related reason, and determining theperceived popularity for the musical artist based on the perceivedpopularity for each of the songs, the perceived popularity for each ofthe musical albums and the perceived popularity for the musical artist.

The preliminary perceived popularity for the musical artist alone may bebased on popularity of the musical artist without regard to popularityof individual songs or musical albums related to the musical artist. Thenon-music related reason may include activism, acting, gossip,interpersonal relationships and/or tragedy. The individual attributesrelated to the non-music related reason may include a cause, anorganizational affiliation, a television show, a movie, a commercial, atabloid article, a famous significant other, a famous relative and/or anaccident.

Implementations of any of the techniques described may include a methodor process, an apparatus or system, or computer software on acomputer-accessible medium. The details of particular implementationsare set forth below. Other features will be apparent from thedescription and drawings, and from the claims.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is an exemplary communications system for providing searchresults based on popularity of content items associated with the searchresults.

FIG. 1B is a flow chart of an exemplary process for providing searchresults based on popularity of content items associated with the searchresults.

FIG. 1C is a flow chart of an exemplary process for providing searchresults based on popularity of content items associated with the searchresults in response to a search query known to be related to aparticular genre.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of an exemplary process for identifying a contentitem associated with a search result.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of an exemplary process for associating agenerated perceived popularity for a content item with the content itemand storing the association.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of an exemplary process for generating aperceived popularity for a content item.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of an exemplary process for generating aperceived popularity for a song, associating the perceived popularitywith the song, and storing the association in a genre-specific catalog.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of an exemplary process for generating aperceived popularity for a music album associating the perceivedpopularity with the music album, and storing the association in agenre-specific catalog.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of an exemplary process for generating aperceived popularity for a music artist, associating the perceivedpopularity with the music artist, and storing the association in agenre-specific catalog.

FIG. 8 is an illustration of a data file included in a genre-specificcatalog.

FIG. 9 is an illustration of a graphical user interface (GUI) configuredto provide search results for a search query based on popularity ofsongs associated with the search results.

FIGS. 10-12 are illustrations of GUIs configured to provide video searchresults based on popularity of songs associated with the video searchresults.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

When a user is interested in finding information about a real-worldperson or item on the Internet, the user submits a search query to asearch engine or system. The search engine or system presents searchresults that correspond to the search query, each search resultincluding a link or pointer selectable by the user to access a digitalinstance (e.g., a web page) that includes information that is deemed tobe responsive to the user's information need, as represented by theuser-inputted search query. The presentation of the search results tothe user may be enhanced, particularly for users seeking audio and/orvideo (referred to as audio/video) information, by modifying thepresentation of the search results based on a perceived popularity ofthe real-world person or item.

A real-world person or item may be referred to as a content item.Examples of content items include a band, a musical artist, a musicalalbum or a song. A digital instance may be a digital asset, such as, forexample, a digital audio file, a digital video file, or a web page thatdescribes a content item (e.g., a web page that includes informationabout a musical artist) or embodies the content item (e.g., a digitalaudio file that embodies a song). A content item may be identified asbeing associated with a search result if the digital instance referredto by the search result describes or embodies the content item.

A perceived popularity for a content item may be one or more parametersthat indicate a degree of popularity for the content item in comparisonwith other content items. Notably, a perceived popularity for a contentitem is distinct from a popularity of a digital instance. In particular,a perceived popularity is a popularity measure for a real-world personor item, which may be described by or embodied in a digital asset. Apopularity of the digital instance, in contrast, is a popularity measureof the digital asset itself. For example, the singer Madonna (i.e.,content item) is extremely popular world-wide; however, web pages thatinclude information about Madonna may vary in popularity depending onfactors other than the popularity of Madonna, herself (e.g., quality ofinformation provided in the web page, number of links to the web pageand notoriety of the web page authors). Consequently, assessment of thepopularity of Madonna (e.g., content item) of a relatively new orobscure web page that references Madonna may be used as a basis forincreasing a rank for that web page relative to other web pages thatreference less popular content items (e.g., the 1980s singer Tiffany),even if those other web pages are themselves historically morefrequently accessed by web users.

Search results associated with content items having higher perceivedpopularity may be deemed to be more likely responsive to a user'sinformation need than search results associated with content itemshaving lower perceived popularity. This may be the case because a searchresult that is associated with a more popular content item (e.g., morepopular subject matter) is more likely to be responsive to a user'ssearch query than a search result that is associated with a less popularcontent item. The search results deemed more likely to be responsive tothe user's information need may be preferentially presented in a displayover search results deemed less likely to be responsive to the user'sinformation need. In one implementation, search results associated withcontent items having a relatively high perceived popularity may bepreferentially presented to the user by presenting the search resultshigher in a ranked list than search results associated with contentitems having a relatively low perceived popularity. For example, searchresults associated with Madonna, the nationally recognized singer ofsuch hits as “Lucky Star”, may be ranked higher than search resultsassociated with Madonna, a lesser-known cover singer in Chicago.

A perceived popularity for a content item may be gleaned from searching,or crawling, the Internet using, for example, focus asset type crawling.The number of references to a particular content item may be used as anindicator of the popularity of the content item, and therefore, may beused to generate a perceived popularity for the content item. The searchof the Internet may be improved by leveraging databases that includeinformation related to a particular type or genre of content items forwhich perceived popularity are desired. For example, if the contentitems relate to music (e.g., bands, artists, albums and/or songs),music-related databases, such as, for example, Muse, FreeDB and AllMusic Guide (AMG), may be accessed to increase the reliability ofdetection of music-related references during the search of the Internetby increasing the chances that a detected reference to a music contentitem on the Internet is actually a reference to a music content item andnot a reference to a content item that belongs to another genre. Forexample, a search of the Internet for references to the singer Madonnamay be supplemented with information included in a music-relateddatabase by adjusting the search query to include additional informationrelated to Madonna the musician, such as, for example, genericmusic-related words (e.g., song, music, lyric), Madonna album titles(e.g., “Ray of Light,” “True Blue” and “Like a Prayer”), and Madonnasong titles (e.g., “Lucky Star,” “Borderline” and “Holiday”).Additionally, or alternatively, a query related to the singer Madonnamay be supplemented with non-music related words (e.g., words associatedwith religious references to the Madonna) and an indication to stay awayfrom those words. In this way, references related to the word “Madonna”may be identified if they are music-related references, rather thanreligious-related references to the Madonna.

In addition to generating perceived popularity for music-related contentitems, the same or analogous techniques described herein also may beapplied, for example, to generating perceived popularity forsports-related content items (e.g., sports figures, teams or particulargames), news-related content items (e.g., news programs, newspapers oranchors), celebrity-related content items (e.g., movies, televisionshows or actors) and/or politics-related content items (e.g., politicalissues, races or candidates/politicians), to name just a few. In someimplementations, the techniques described herein may be used to enhancethe presentation of search results associated with any type ofinformation that is stored in any local or remote location, if thesearch results may be associated with content items that are referencedon the Internet such that a perceived popularity associated with thecontent items may be generated.

Communications system 100A of FIG. 1A includes a client 110 and a searchsystem 130 that communicate through a network 120 to provide searchresults based on popularity of content items associated with the searchresults. A content item may be associated with a search result if thesearch result provides a link for accessing a digital instance thatdescribes or embodies the content item.

Each of the client 110 and the search system 130 may be implemented by,for example, a general-purpose computer capable of responding to andexecuting instructions in a defined manner, a personal computer, aspecial-purpose computer, a workstation, a server, a device, acomponent, other equipment or some combination thereof capable ofresponding to and executing instructions. The client 110 and searchsystem 130 may be configured to receive instructions from, for example,a software application, a program, a piece of code, a device, acomputer, a computer system, or a combination thereof, whichindependently or collectively direct operations, as described herein.The instructions may be embodied permanently or temporarily in any typeof machine, component, equipment, storage medium, or propagated signalthat is capable of being delivered to the client 110 or the searchsystem 130.

The client 110 may include one or more devices capable of accessingcontent on the search system 130. The search system 130 may include ageneral-purpose computer (e.g., a personal computer (PC)) capable ofresponding to and executing instructions in a defined manner, aworkstation, a notebook computer, a PDA (“Personal Digital Assistant”),a wireless phone, a component, other equipment, or some combination ofthese items that is capable of responding to and executing instructions.

In one implementation, the client 110 includes one or more informationretrieval software applications (e.g., a browser, a mail application, aninstant messaging client, an Internet service provider client, a mediaplayer, or another integrated client) capable of receiving one or moredata units. The information retrieval applications may run on ageneral-purpose operating system and a hardware platform that includes ageneral-purpose processor and specialized hardware for graphics,communications and/or other capabilities. In another implementation, theclient 110 may include a wireless telephone running a micro-browserapplication on a reduced operating system with general purpose andspecialized hardware capable of operating in mobile environments.

The network 120 includes hardware and/or software capable of enablingdirect or indirect communications between the client 110 and the searchsystem 130. As such, the network 120 may include a direct link betweenthe client 110 and the search system 130, or it may include one or morenetworks or sub networks between them (not shown). Each network or subnetwork may include, for example, a wired or wireless data pathwaycapable of carrying and receiving data. Examples of the delivery networkinclude the Internet, the World Wide Web, a WAN (“Wide Area Network”), aLAN (“Local Area Network”), analog or digital wired and wirelesstelephone networks, radio, television, cable, satellite, and/or anyother delivery mechanism for carrying data.

The search system 130 may include a general-purpose computer having acentral processor unit (CPU), and memory/storage devices that store dataand various programs such as an operating system and one or moreapplication programs. Other examples of a search system 130 includes aworkstation, a server, a special purpose device or component, abroadcast system, other equipment, or some combination thereof capableof responding to and executing instructions in a defined manner. Thesearch system 130 also may include an input/output (I/O) device (e.g.,video and audio input and conversion capability), and peripheralequipment such as a communications card or device (e.g., a modem or anetwork adapter) for exchanging data with the network 120.

The search system 130 is generally capable of executing instructionsunder the command of a controller. The search system 130 may be used toprovide content to the client 110. The controller may be implemented bya software application loaded on the search system 130 for commandingand directing communications exchanged with the client 110. Otherexamples of the controller include a program, a piece of code, aninstruction, a device, a computer, a computer system, or a combinationthereof, for independently or collectively instructing the client 110 orthe search system 130 to interact and operate as described. The searchsystem 130 may be embodied permanently or temporarily in any type ofmachine, component, physical or virtual equipment, storage medium, orpropagated signal capable of providing instructions to the client 110 orthe search system 130.

Process 100B of FIG. 1B is configured to provide search results based onpopularity of content items associated with the search results when asearch query is not known to be associated with a specific genre. Forconvenience, particular components described with respect to FIG. 1A arereferenced as performing the process 100B. However, similarmethodologies may be applied in other implementations where differentcomponents are used to define the structure of the system, or where thefunctionality is distributed differently among the components shown byFIG. 1A.

The client 110 receives a search query from a user (151) and sends thesearch query to the search system 130 through the network 120 (152). Inthe implementation shown in FIG. 1B, the search query is provided by theuser in such a way that it is not known to be associated with aparticular category or topic, referred to as a “genre.” For example, thesearch query may be inputted into a search engine that is not agenre-specific search engine, or may be inputted into a search enginewithout the user providing an indication of an associated genre.

The search system 130 receives the search query from the client (153)and determines search results based on the search query (154). Thesearch system 130 identifies search results that are related to a genre(155). The genre may be determined based on information provided by theuser in conjunction with the search query, based on a categorization ofa search result or a digital instance referred to by the search result,or by some other means. For example, 5 search results may be determined,where 2 of the search results are related to a “music” genre, 2 of thesearch results are related to a “nature” genre, and 1 of the searchresults is related to a “sports” genre. The search system 130 maydetermine that a particular search result is related to a genre byaccessing information, such as metadata, associated with a digitalinstance referred to by the search result. For example, a search resultmay refer to a web page entitled “I Love Duran Duran” and the web pagemay be associated with metadata that includes keywords, such as, forexample, “music,” “rock,” and “1980s” included in the web page. Thesearch system 130 may access the keywords included in the metadata and,based on, for example, an ontology or taxonomy, identify a genre towhich the keywords belong. In the present example, the keywords “music,”“rock,” and “1980s” may be determined to belong to a music genre.

In operation 155, the search system 130 identifies search results thatare related to a single genre—thus, and for example, search system 130,at this time, identifies the two search results that are related to the“music” genre.

The search system 130 identifies one or more content items associatedwith each of the genre-related search results based on a genre-specificcatalog (156). Content items that may be associated with a search resultmay be included in a catalog that is specific to the genre related tothe search result. The genre of the genre-specific catalog may be thesingle genre identified for the search results in operation 155described above. In the present example, the genre identified as beingrelated to the two search results is “music,” and thus, the catalogaccessed by the search system 130 in order to identify content itemsassociated with each of the genre-related search results is amusic-specific catalog.

As described above, a content item may be a real-world person or item,such as, for example, a band, a musical artist, a musical album or asong, and a digital instance may be a digital asset, such as, forexample, a digital audio file, a digital video file, or a web page. Inthe implementation in which content items are music-related (e.g.,bands, artists, musical albums and songs), a set of bands, artists,musical albums and songs may be identified during a preliminary searchof the Internet and/or by accessing music-related databases. Moreparticularly, the Internet may be searched or crawled to identify a setof music-related content items based on a search for genericmusic-related words (e.g., song, lyric and music) or music-related wordsand concepts related to a particular content item (e.g., band names,artist names, album names or song names). The set of music-relatedcontent items may be stored in a music-specific catalog.

Additional information related to the content items stored in agenre-specific catalog, such as, for example, perceived popularity forthe content items, also may be determined and stored in thegenre-specific catalog. As such, a second search of the Internet may becarried out for each identified content item to identify references tothe content item. A reference to a content item on the Internet mayinclude information related to the content item described by, orembodied within, a digital instance (e.g., text in a web page thatstates “Madonna rocks,” an audio file that includes the song “Holiday,”or an image of the cover art from the album “True Blue”). To determinewhether content on a web page or within another type of digital instance(e.g., an image, an audio file, a video file or a document) includes areference to a music-related content item, the digital instance may beanalyzed using a classifier (e.g., a classifier based on a machinelearning algorithm, such as, for example, the Support Vector Machine(SVM) algorithm, the Bayes algorithm or the Perceptron algorithm). Theclassifier may classify web pages or other digital instances as being ina music category (or a broader category, such as, for exampleentertainment) or being in some other category. The digital instancesthat are classified as music digital instances, and include content thatrelates to a music-related content item for which the Internet is beingsearched, may be used to determine a perceived popularity of the contentitem, which may be stored in the genre-specific catalog in associationwith the content item, as described below.

A content item may be identified as being associated with a searchresult if the digital instance referred to by the search resultdescribes the content item or embodies the content item. To determine ifa particular genre-related search result is associated with a contentitem that is included in the genre-specific catalog, the digitalinstance (or information related thereto, such as, for example,metadata) to which the particular genre-related search result refers maybe accessed and compared with one or more of the content items includedin the genre-specific catalog. If the digital instance includesinformation that is the same as, or sufficiently similar to, informationassociated with a content item, the digital instance may be deemed todescribe or embody the content item. For example, a search result thatrefers to a web page (i.e., digital instance) that provides lyrics tothe song “Big Yellow Taxi” by the band the Counting Crows,” may bedeemed to be associated with a song (i.e., content item) entitled “BigYellow Taxi.” The search system 130 assesses perceived popularity forthe identified content items (157). The genre-specific catalog mayinclude a perceived popularity for each entry associated with a contentitem. As described above, a perceived popularity may be a parameter(e.g., a single number or other value) that indicates how popular acontent item is on the Internet, where the parameter may have a highvalue if the content item is popular and a low value if the content itemis not popular (or vice versa). For each content item determined to beassociated with the identified genre-related search results, the searchsystem 130 accesses a perceived popularity stored in the genre-specificcatalog. In some implementations, the perceived popularity may bedetermined by the search system 130 on-the-fly based on the same method(e.g., process 300 of FIG. 3) used to populate the genre-specificdatabase.

The search system 130 determines a presentation of the search resultsbased on the perceived popularity (158). A presentation may, forexample, be a visual list of search results, a list of search resultsthat are presented aurally, or a collection of search results presentedin a manner other than a list In some implementations, search resultsidentified as being related to the determined genre (i.e., genre-relatedsearch results) may be presented in a way that is visually distinct(e.g., at the top of a search result list, under a heading or groupedtogether) from search results that are not related to the genre (i.e.,genre-neutral search results). Alternatively, all search results may beprovided together as a fused group without any indication or separationof genre-related search results versus genre-neutral search results.

In either case, genre-related search results may be further organizedbased on the perceived popularity for the content items associated withthe identified search results. For example, search results associatedwith content items having perceived popularity indicative of greaterpopularity may be presented higher in a search result list, at aprivileged position (e.g., grouped to the side of the search resultlist) or with a specialized indicator (e.g., a high popularity star nextto each search result) than those search results associated with contentitems having perceived popularity that are indicative of lesserpopularity. Furthermore, genre-neutral search results may be presented,for example, as a group that is visually separated from thegenre-related search results. Alternatively, and also for example,non-genre-related search results may be intermixed with genre-relatedsearch results, such that the placement of the genre-related searchresults relative to each other changes based on the perceivedpopularity, but the position of the genre-related search results remainsthe same relative to the non-genre-related search results.

The search system 130 provides the search results and presentation tothe client through the network 120 (159). The client 110 displays thesearch results to the user based on the determined presentation (160).

In some implementations, the perceived popularity stored in thegenre-specific catalog also may be used by the search system 130, forexample, to identify digital instances for automatic placement in acontent (e.g., audio or video) inbox or to provide recommended contentand targeted advertisements to a user.

In some implementations, the client 110 may request direct access to agenre-specific or a genre-neutral catalog stored in data store 140 fromsearch system 130 through network 120. The direct access may enable theclient 110 to use the perceived popularity stored within the catalog forcontent items to organize digital instances (that describe or embodythose content items) within a private database, and providepopularity-based search results when querying the private database.

Process 100C of FIG. 1C is configured to provide search results based onpopularity of content items associated with search results in responseto a search query that is known to be associated with a particulargenre. For convenience, particular components described with respect toFIG. 1A are referenced as performing the process 100C. However, similarmethodologies may be applied in other implementations where differentcomponents are used to define the structure of the system, or where thefunctionality is distributed differently among the components shown byFIG. 1A.

The client 110 receives a genre-related search query from a user (171)and transmits the search query to the search system through the network120 (172). The search system 130 may determine that the search query isrelated to a genre, in some implementations, because the search querywas provided by the user into a genre-specific search engine, such as,for example, a music-based search engine. Alternatively, oradditionally, the user may provide, or select, a genre to be associatedwith the search query upon providing the search query to a searchengine. For example, the user may select a genre from a pull-down menuor some other user interface element, or the user may supply their owngenre via an input box. A search query related to the “music” genre mayinclude lyrics for a song, a full or partial title of a song, a full orpartial title of a music album, an artist name or any combinationthereof. For example, a search query received by search system 130 maybe “paved paradise,” which represents a portion of a lyric from the song“Big Yellow Taxi.”

The search system receives the genre-related search query from theclient (173) and determines search results based on the genre-relatedsearch query (174), as described above with respect to process 100B ofFIG. 1B. In the implementation of process 100C, the search system 1300need not necessarily determine one or more genres associated with thesearch results because the search query is already related to a genre.As such, and presumably, the search results determined based on thegenre-related search query already may be associated with a known genre(e.g., the genre of the genre-specific search query).

The search system 130 identifies a content item associated with each ofthe genre-related search results based on a genre-specific catalog(175). Operation 175 may be performed in the same manner as thatdescribed for operation 156 of process 100B, and as further describedbelow with respect to FIG. 2.

The search system 130 assesses perceived popularity for the identifiedcontent items (176). In some implementations, the perceived popularitymay be stored in, and accessed from, a genre-specific catalog that isrelated to the genre of the genre-specific search query, or may bedetermined on-the-fly, as described above with respect to process 100Bof FIG. 1B. Alternatively, the perceived popularity may be stored in agenre-neutral catalog for content items, and which includes anindication of a genre associated with at least some of the content itemsstored in the genre-neutral catalog. For example, a genre-neutralcatalog may include two entries for a content item “Eagles,” where oneentry includes an indication of a “music” genre and the other includesan indication of a “sports” genre, and each entry is associated with itsown perceived popularity.

The search system 130 determines a presentation of the search resultsbased on the perceived popularity (177) and provides the search resultsand presentation to the client 110 (178). The client 110 displays thesearch results to the user based on the presentation (179).

In some implementations, search results determined during processes 100Bor 100C may not be identified as being related to a particular genre. Assuch, a genre-specific catalog may not be accessed by the search system130 to identify content items associated with each of the determinedsearch results. Instead, the search system 130 may access agenre-neutral catalog, which may include a listing of content itemsrelated to multiple genres (and, in some cases, an indication of genresto which the stored content items are related), as well as perceivedpopularity related to each of the stored content items. Each searchresult determined based on the search query may be compared against thegenre-neutral catalog to identify a content item that is associated withthe search results, as described in more detail with respect to FIG. 2.

Process 200 of FIG. 2 is configured to identify a content itemassociated with a search result. For convenience, particular componentsdescribed with respect to FIG. 1A are referenced as performing theprocess 200. However, similar methodologies may be applied in otherimplementations where different components are used to define thestructure of the system, or where the functionality is distributeddifferently among the components shown by FIG. 1A. Process 200 is oneexemplary implementation of operation 156 of FIG. 1B and operation 176of FIG. 1C.

The search system 130 selects a genre-related search result (210). Thesearch results were determined, and identified as being related to aparticular genre, during at least one of processes 100B and 100C. Forexample, the search system 130 selects a search result that refers to aMadonna Blog web page (i.e., digital instance) that discusses the singerMadonna.

A search result includes a link (i.e., hyperlink) or pointer that isselectable by a user to access a digital instance that is referred to bythe search result. A search result also includes non-link basedinformation that describes the digital instance to which the searchresult refers. For example, the Madonna search result includes a link tothe Madonna Blog web page (i.e., www.madonnablog.com) and non-link basedinformation about the web page (i.e., web page title “Stephanie'sMadonna Blog” and the first sentence displayed on the web page “Welcometo my Madonna blog!”).

The search system 130 accesses non-link based information for the searchresult (220). In the present example, the search system 130 accesses thenon-link based information for the Madonna search result, which includesthe web page title “Stephanie's Madonna Blog” and the first sentence ofthe web page “Welcome to my Madonna blog!”

The search system 130 accesses the digital instance to which the searchresult refers using link-based information for the search result (230).In the present example, the search system 130 accesses the Madonna Blogweb page by following the link-based information for the search result(e.g., by following the link www.madonnablog.com).

The search system 130 compares words and phrases included in thenon-link based information and content of the digital instance withcontent items stored in the genre-specific catalog (240). For example,the genre-specific catalog includes the content items “Madonna,”“Prince,” and “U2.” The search system 130 compares these content items(and any information associated therewith in the genre-specific catalog,such as, for example, other keywords that are associated with thecontent items) with words and phrases gleaned from the non-link basedinformation for the search result and content of the Madonna Blog webpage.

The search system 130 identifies candidate content items based onmatches between the words and phrases and the stored content items(250). For example, the words and phrases in the non-link basedinformation for, and content within, the Madonna Blog web page includethe word “Madonna,” which is a match for the content item “Madonna.” Assuch, the content item “Madonna” is identified as a candidate contentitem. In some instances where the words and phrases are a match for morethan one content item (e.g., a web page related to a Prince vs. Madonnaparty may include words and phrases that are a match for both thecontent item “Madonna” and the content item “Prince”), more than onecandidate content item may be identified.

The search system 130 determines if more than Z candidate content itemshave been identified or less than 1 candidate content item has beenidentified (260). The number Z may be a predetermined or user-definedthreshold number of content items. If more than the threshold number ofcontent items have been identified as candidate content items, it maynot be possible for the search system to accurately determine that aparticular search result is truly associated with a useful number ofcontent items. For example, a web page that includes an article aboutmusicians from the 1980s may include words and phrases that are a matchfor 25 content items stored in the genre-specific catalog. As such,although the web page is associated with a large number of contentitems, the web page may not include enough detailed information about auseful number of those content items to be deemed to be associated withany one particular content item. Similarly, if less than 1 candidatecontent item (i.e., zero candidate content items) has been identified,the selected search result cannot be said to be associated with aparticular content item.

As such, if less than 1, or more than Z, candidate content items havebeen identified, the search system 130 determines that the selectedsearch result is not associated with one or more content items (270).

If more than 1, or less than Z, candidate content items have beenidentified, the search system 130 associates the selected search resultwith the identified candidate content items (280). If the number ofcandidate content items falls between 1 and the threshold number Z, thesearch system 130 may determine that the selected search result isassociated with a useful number of content items, and may so associatethose content items with the selected search result.

Process 300 of FIG. 3 is configured to generate a perceived popularityfor a content item and store the association between the perceivedpopularity and the content item in the genre-specific catalog. Forconvenience, particular components described with respect to FIG. 1A arereferenced as performing the process 300. However, similar methodologiesmay be applied in other implementations where different components areused to define the structure of the system, or where the functionalityis distributed differently among the components shown by FIG. 1A.

The search system 130 accesses a genre-specific catalog and selects acontent item, from among content items stored within the genre-specificcatalog, to determine if the content item is popular (310). Thegenre-specific catalog may include content items related to a particularcategory, such as, for example, music, sports, news, movies ortelevision. The content items that may be included in a music-relatedcatalog, for example, may be artists and related songs, music videos andalbums. The search system 130 may select a content item in operation 310if, for example, the content item does not have a perceived popularityassociated therewith or a perceived popularity associated with thecontent item is stale (e.g., the perceived popularity has not beenupdated for longer than a threshold amount of time).

The search system 130 forms a popularity query for the selected contentitem based on information associated with the content item and stored inthe catalog (320). For example, the song “Holiday” (i.e., a contentitem) may be selected, and the popularity query for the song may includethe title of the song (e.g., “Holiday”) as well as other informationassociated with the song (e.g., artist “Green Day” and album “AmericanIdiot”). Thus, in the present example, the popularity query may be“Holiday AND Green Day AND American Idiot” or some combination, orsub-combination thereof.

In another implementation, the search system 130 forms a popularityquery for the selected content item based on information stored in otherdata sources, in addition to, or instead of, the genre-specific catalog.For example, the search system 130 may form a popularity query for thesong “Holiday” based on information found in a music web page (e.g.,CDNow.com) about songs having the title “Holiday.”

The popularity query for a content item may be used by the search system130 to determine if information related to the content item is beingreferenced on the Internet, and thus, whether, and to what extent, thecontent item is popular. To do so, the search system 130 searchesprivate (e.g., a hard drive of a personal computer) and public (e.g.,the Internet) networks for digital instances that satisfy the popularityquery (330). For example, the search system 130 may review web pages onthe Internet seeking information that is related to the popularityquery, much like a search engine may traverse the Internet seekinginformation that satisfies a search query. For example, search system130 may detect a web page that is entitled “Green Day Rocks” and whichrefers to both the song “Holiday” and the album “American Idiot.”

The search system 130 determines popularity search results based on thedigital instances identified as satisfying the popularity query (340).More particularly, the search system 130 may generate search resultsthat refer to digital instances that describe or embody the selectedcontent item (e.g., the “Green Day Rocks” web page). The search resultsmay be used by the search system 130 to determine the popularity of thecontent item.

The search system 130 generates a perceived popularity for the contentitem based on the popularity search results (350). For example, the morepopularity search results that are determined, the more popular thecontent item may be, as described in more detail below.

The generated perceived popularity may be associated with the selectedcontent item and stored within the genre-specific catalog (360) inassociation with the content item in, for example, a perceivedpopularity field. For example, an entry within the genre-specificcatalog may include the song “Holiday” and a number that represents aperceived popularity associated with the song. The search system 130 mayrefer to the perceived popularity field of the genre-specific catalogwhenever search results that are related to the genre are to bepresented to a user.

In some implementations, the popularity field of the genre-specificcatalog may be referenced by a device or system outside search system130. For example, a user may maintain a private database of digitalinstances related to a particular genre (e.g., music), which describe orembody particular content items. The user may wish to sort or search theprivate database based on popularity of the content items which aredescribed by or embodied in the digital instances. As such, the user'slocal device (e.g., personal computer) may contact the search system 130through network 120 and request access to the genre-specific catalog asstored in data store 140. The local device then may determine if aperceived popularity exists for content items that are the same as, orsimilar to, content items described by or embodied in digital instancesstored in the private database. If so, the local device may identify theperceived popularity and associate them with content items (via thedigital instances) in the private database.

In some implementations, the popularity field of the genre-specificcatalog may be referenced by search system 130 for providing informationother than search results. For example, search system 130 may provideinformation to a user in a content (e.g., video or audio) inbox. Uponentering the inbox, the user may be presented with “hot” digitalinstances. The “hot” digital instances may be determined, and presentedto the user, based on perceived popularity stored in the catalog, andassociated with the “hot” digital instances describing or embodyingpopular content items. In another example, the same perceived popularitycan be used to identify, for example, information recommendations andadvertisements for a user.

Process 400 of FIG. 4 is configured to generate a perceived popularityfor a content item. For convenience, particular components describedwith respect to FIG. 1A are referenced as performing the process 100B.However, similar methodologies may be applied in other implementationswhere different components are used to define the structure of thesystem, or where the functionality is distributed differently among thecomponents shown by FIG. 1A. Process 400 is an illustration of oneimplementation of operation 350 of FIG. 3.

The search system 130 receives popularity search results for aparticular content item, as determined in process 300 of FIG. 3 (410).The popularity search results may include search results determined bythe search system 130 based on the popularity query formed duringprocess 300 of FIG. 3.

The search system 130 determines that N popularity search results arereceived, where N is referred to as the raw popularity score (420). Thesearch system 130 may simply count the number of popularity searchresults retrieved in response to the popularity query, or the searchsystem 130 may increase a counter each time a popularity search resultsis determined. Thus, upon completion of the determination of allresponsive popularity search results, the search system 130 maydetermine that the list of responsive popularity search results includesN popularity search results. For example, if 20 popularity searchresults are received, N=20.

The search system 130 uses a classifier to analyze the top T popularitysearch results from among the N popularity search results, where T isless than N (430). A popularity search result may be among the top Tpopularity search results if the search result is associated with agreater perceived popularity than a predetermined number of other searchresults. The number T may be predetermined or set by a user.

In general, a classifier is a decision system that is provided withvalues of some features or characteristics of a situation as input andproduces as an output a discrete label related to the input values. Aclassifier may be a machine learning classifier in that the classifierautomatically builds upon the initial input values based on dataencountered by the classifier, and, in some situations, feedbackprovided by a user, in order to provide more accurate results (e.g.,labeling) in the future.

The classifier used by search system 130 may be seeded with informationrelated to the content item selected. For example, if the content itemselected is a song, the classifier may include information related tosongs in order for the classifier to determine if any of the top Tpopularity search results are related to music, in general, and songs,in particular. The classifier may include song-related information, suchas, for example, song titles, artist names, album titles, fileextensions associated with music (e.g., .mp3 or .wav) and othermusic-related words (e.g., “band,” “track,” “CD” and “concert”).

The classifier determines R popularity search results (from among thetop T popularity search results) that are related to the genre of thegenre-specific catalog (e.g., music) from which the content item (e.g.,song) was selected (440). For example, the top T popularity searchresults for a song entitled “Breathe” may include search results relatedto the song “Breathe” by artist Faith Hill, the song “Breathe” by artist“Blu Cantrell” and articles related to new products for helping people“breathe” better at night. Thus, the classifier may include thepopularity search results for the two songs entitled “Breathe” withinthe R popularity search results, while the article related to betterbreathing may not be included.

The classifier determines an ambiguity ratio to indicate a number ofpopularity search results that are related to the genre in relation tothe number of popularity search results that are analyzed by theclassifier (450). For example, the ratio may be the R popularity searchresults related to the music genre over the T top search results thatwere analyzed to determine search results within the music genre (i.e.,R/T). The ratio may be referred to as an ambiguity score. Additionally,or alternatively, the classifier may determine a number of popularitysearch results N and a number of popularity search results R (from theentire group of N popularity search results) that are within the genrefrom which the content item was selected. In this implementation, theambiguity score may be determined by calculating the logarithm of theratio N/R (i.e., log (N/R)).

The search system 130 determines a perceived popularity for a contentitem based on the raw popularity score and the ambiguity score (460).For example, the perceived popularity (e.g., a single popularity score)may be determined by performing an operation (e.g., addition,subtraction, multiplication or division) on the raw popularity score andthe ambiguity score. For example, the following formula may be used.BP(e)=N(e)+AR(e)where BP(e) is the perceived popularity for a content item e, N(e) isthe raw popularity score for the content item e and AR(e) is theambiguity ratio for the content item e.

Process 500 of FIG. 5 is configured to determine a perceived popularityfor a song, associating the perceived popularity with the song, andstoring the association in a genre-specific catalog. For convenience,particular components described with respect to FIG. 1A are referencedas performing the process 500. However, similar methodologies may beapplied in other implementations where different components are used todefine the structure of the system, or where the functionality isdistributed differently among the components shown by FIG. 1A.

The search system 130 accesses a music-specific catalog and selects asong to determine if the song is popular (510). The content itemselected from the music-specific catalog can also be an artist, a musicvideo or an album. For example, the search system 130 may select a songentitled “Big Yellow Taxi.”

The search system 130 forms a popularity query for the song based onvarious combinations of terms related to information in themusic-specific catalog related to the song (520). For example, thepopularity query may be “song,” “song and artist,” “song and CD1, “songand artist and CD1,” “song and CD2” and “song and artist and CD2,” whereCD1 is a first album on which the song appears and CD2 is a second albumon which the song appears, such as, for example, a soundtrack orgreatest hits album. In the present example, the popularity query for“Big Yellow Taxi” may be “song and artist”—“Big Yellow Taxi AND CountingCrows.”

The search system 130 searches both public (e.g., the Internet) andprivate (e.g., locally-stored) networks for content that satisfies thepopularity query (530) and determines popularity search results based onthe content (540). The popularity search results may refer to documents(e.g., web pages, text documents, audio, video and images) that includecontent that satisfies the popularity query. For example, a popularitysearch result for the popularity query “Big Yellow Taxi AND CountingCrows” may refer to a web page entitled “Lyrics for Big Yellow Taxi byCounting Crows.”

The search system 130 determines a perceived popularity for the songbased on the popularity search results (550), as described above. Theperceived popularity may be associated with the selected content itemand stored within the genre-specific catalog (560). For example, aparticular perceived popularity may be stored in the genre-specificcatalog in association with an entry for the song “Big Yellow Taxi.”

Process 600 of FIG. 6 is configured to determine a perceived popularityfor a music album associating the perceived popularity with the musicalbum, and storing the association in a genre-specific catalog. Forconvenience, particular components described with respect to FIG. 1A arereferenced as performing the process 600. However, similar methodologiesmay be applied in other implementations where different components areused to define the structure of the system, or where the functionalityis distributed differently among the components shown by FIG. 1A.

In general, the popularity of an album (e.g., a compact disc (CD)) maybe determined based on a combination of the popularity of the album byitself and the popularity of individual songs on the album. To determinethe popularity of a CD, the search system 130 receives an indicationthat a CD is the selected content item for which popularity is to bedetermined (610). For example, upon selection of the content item fromthe catalog by the search system 130, the search system 130 may detect atag or other indicia associated with the content item, which indicatesthat the selected content item is a CD, rather than a song or artist.

The search system 130 identifies songs that are on the CD (620). In someimplementations, an indication of the songs on the CD may be associatedwith the CD content item within the genre-specific catalog. For example,the CD “Breathe” by artist Faith Hill may include, inter alia, the songs“What's In It For Me?,” “I Got My Baby,” and “Breathe.” Additionally, oralternatively, search system 130 may refer to another source (e.g., amusic-related database, such as, for example, Muse, FreeDB or AMG) toidentify songs that are on a particular CD.

The search system 130 determines a perceived popularity for each song onthe CD 630), using, for example, process 500 of FIG. 5. The searchsystem 130 determines a preliminary perceived popularity for the CD,which includes only the popularity of the CD on its own (i.e., withoutthe influence of popularity of any particular song on the CD) (640).

The search system 130 determines a perceived popularity for the CD basedon the perceived popularity for each song and the preliminary perceivedpopularity for the CD (650). In some implementations, to combine aperceived popularity for songs on a CD with a preliminary perceivedpopularity of the CD, itself, a mathematical operation (e.g., addition,subtraction, multiplication, division or averaging) may be performed onthe perceived popularity.

Process 700 of FIG. 7 is configured to determine a perceived popularityfor a music artist, associating the perceived popularity with the musicartist, and storing the association in a genre-specific catalog. Forconvenience, particular components described with respect to FIG. 1A arereferenced as performing the process 700. However, similar methodologiesmay be applied in other implementations where different components areused to define the structure of the system, or where the functionalityis distributed differently among the components shown by FIG. 1A.

Similar to that described above, in general, the popularity of an artistmay be determined based on a combination of the popularity of songs andCDs produced by the artist, as well as personal popularity of the artistrelated to appearances by the artist in television commercials,television shows or movies, activism performed by the artist or anycelebrity gossip related the artist.

To determine the popularity of an artist, the search system 130 receivesan indication that an artist is the selected content item for whichpopularity is to be determined, similar to the determination made inoperation 610 of FIG. 6 (710). The search system 130 identifies songs bythe artist (720) and CDs by the artist, similar to the identificationmade in operation 620 of FIG. 6 (730).

The search system 130 determines if the artist is popular for reasonsother than their music career (e.g., acting) and determines otherattributes that are related to the other reason (e.g., movie ortelevision roles) (740). For example, the music-related catalog mayinclude information related to personal popularity for an artist, andthe search system 130 may, in one implementation, request thisinformation from the catalog along with, or subsequent to, selection ofthe artist from the catalog. In some implementations, the search system130 may access other sources, such as, for example, other artist andcelebrity information databases and web pages (e.g., E Online! web pageor Entertainment Tonight web page) to identify information related topersonal popularity for a particular artist.

The search system 130 determines a perceived popularity for each song bythe artist (750), using, for example, process 500 of FIG. 5, and each CDby the artist, using, for example, process 600 of FIG. 6 (760).

The search system 130 also determines a perceived personal popularityfor the artist based on musical reasons (e.g., a Grammy win) and otherreasons (e.g., having a baby or being in the summer blockbuster movie)(770).

The search system 130 determines a perceived popularity for the artistbased on the perceived popularity for each song and each CD and theperceived personal popularity for the artist (780). In someimplementations, to combine a perceived popularity for songs on a CD,various CDs and a perceived personal popularity for an artist, amathematical operation (e.g., addition, subtraction, multiplication,division or averaging) may be performed on the perceived popularity.

Data file 800 of FIG. 8 is included in data store 140. Moreparticularly, data file 800 is an illustration of a music-specificcatalog 800. For illustrative purposes, music-specific catalog 800 showscontent items that are songs, where each entry in the music-specificcatalog 800 includes a song and information related to the song.Additionally, music-specific catalog 800 may include separate entriesfor content items related to albums, artists, music videos and othermusic-related content items, and the information in various entries mayoverlap. For example, a song entry may include a particular CD on whichthe song has been included, while an entry for the particular CD mayinclude the song.

The music-specific catalog 800 includes a list of song titles 811, suchas, for example, songs having the word “Breathe” in the title, songsentitled “Big Yellow Taxi” and songs entitled “Holiday.” For each songtitle, an artist 812 who sings a song having that title is listed, aswell as a first 813 and second 814 (if applicable) album (e.g., CD) onwhich the song appears.

The music-specific catalog 800 also includes a perceived popularity foreach content item (e.g., song) within the music-specific catalog 800.The perceived popularity is a parameter that may, in someimplementations, include a single number that represents a combinationof a raw popularity score and an ambiguity ratio, as described above.The entries for some content items within music-specific catalog 800 donot include a perceived popularity because, for example, no perceivedpopularity has been determined for the song or a perceived popularitydetermined for the song has become stale, and thus, was removed. Contentitems without a perceived popularity may be selected by search system130, as described above, for determination of a perceived popularityassociated therewith. For example, in an exemplary entry 820, the artistBlu Cantrell sings a song titled “Breathe,” which appears on the album“Bittersweet” and has a perceived popularity of “40.”

As described above, the music-specific catalog may be used to determinepopularity of a particular song, album, artist or other music-relateddigital instance. When providing search results for a search queryassociated with a content item, the search system 130 may visuallypresent search results that are associated with popular songs, albums orartists in a manner that separates search results that are most likelyto be responsive to the search query from other run of the mill searchresults. Thus, the provided search results may more accurately, oreasily, satisfy an information need of the user who entered the searchquery.

GUI 900 of FIG. 9 is structured and arranged to provide search resultsfor a search query based on popularity of songs associated with thesearch results. Perceived popularity for songs associated with thesearch results may be determined using, for example, process 500 of FIG.5, and may be accessed from a genre-specific catalog, such as, forexample, music-specific catalog 800 of FIG. 8. More particularly, GUI900 provides search results for songs that include the phrase “BigYellow Taxi” as a lyric, a title, an album name, or an artist name.

A search result 910 associated with the Counting Crows version of thesong “Big Yellow Taxi” is provided at the top of the search result listbecause the popularity of the Counting Crows version of the song (e.g.,150 as shown) may be greater than that of other artists (e.g., AmyGrant, Joni Mitchell and Pinhead Gunpowder) who have performed and/orrecorded the tune, as determined based on a perceived popularity forcontent items associated with each of the search results accessed withina music-specific catalog.

Although search results associated with Counting Crows may be providedat the top of the search result list (i.e., the Counting Crows searchresults may be “boosted” to the top of the list), search resultsassociated with other songs having the phrase “Big Yellow Taxi” as atitle also may be provided as search results, but at a lower rankedposition. For example, a search result 920 associated with to the JoniMitchell version of the song is the second search result listed, andthus, may be associated with a perceived popularity (e.g., 100 as shown)that is close to the perceived popularity for the Counting Crows tune(e.g., 150 as shown in FIG. 8). As such, the search system 130 may havedetermined that although the Counting Crows tune is more popular thanthe Joni Mitchell version, the popularity ranking among the two is veryclose. Furthermore, a web page for a band called “Big Yellow Taxi” alsoappears as a search result 830, though much lower in the search resultlist, indicating a lesser popularity (e.g., 15 as shown) and lesserlikelihood that the search result 930 is the most responsive searchresult for the search query.

As described above, a particular search result may be associated withmore than one content item. For example, a search result that refers toa “Madonna vs. Prince” web page may be determined to be associated withboth the artist Madonna and the artist Prince. Because each of theartists may be associated with its own perceived popularity, thisparticular search result may be deemed to be associated with twoperceived popularity. To determine where to present such a search resultin a list of search results, a single perceived popularity may bedetermined for the search result. In a first implementation, the searchsystem 130 may combine the perceived popularity for the more than onecontent item to which the search result refers by, for example,averaging the two perceived popularity or performing some othermathematical operation on the two perceived popularity (e.g., addition,subtraction, multiplication, or division). In a second implementation,the search system 130 may determine a content item that is more closelyrelated to a search query that resulted in presentation of the searchresult and use the perceived popularity associated with the determinedcontent item as the perceived popularity for the search result. In athird implementation, the search system 130 may assign the perceivedpopularity associated with one of the content items as the perceivedpopularity for the search result, such as, for example, the searchsystem 130 may determine that a search result is only as popular as itsleast popular content item, and, as such, use the lowest perceivedpopularity as the perceived popularity for the search result. In afourth implementation, the search system 130 may present the searchresult more than once in a search result list based on each of theperceived popularity associated with the more than one content itemsreferred to by the search result. The first, second, third, and fourthimplementations, or a sub-set thereof, may be used by the search system130 in combination or independently.

GUIs 1000-1200 of FIGS. 10-12, respectively, are structured and arrangedto provide video search results based on popularity of songs associatedwith the video search results. Perceived popularity for the songs may bedetermined using, for example, process 500 of FIG. 5, and may beaccessed from a genre-specific catalog, such as, for example,music-specific catalog 800 of FIG. 8.

More particularly, GUI 1000 provides video search results for the searchquery “Big Yellow Taxi.” The search system 130 may determine that a userdesires video search results because the user entered the search query“Big Yellow Taxi” into a specialty video search engine or via some otherindication.

Search results 1020-1040 are associated with the song “Big Yellow Taxi”as recorded by the artist Counting Crows. The Counting Crows searchresults 1020-1040 may be provided at the top of the search result listbecause the popularity of the Counting Crows version of the song may begreater than that of the other artists (e.g., Amy Grant, Joni Mitchelland Pinhead Gunpowder) who have performed the tune. Although searchresults associated with Counting Crows may be boosted to the top of thesearch result list, search results associated with other songs having“Big Yellow Taxi” as a title or lyric also may be provided as searchresults, but at a lower ranked position (not shown). Additionally, oralternatively, video search results 1020-1040 associated with theCounting Crows may be boosted to the top of the search result listbecause of a popularity for the music video (i.e., a content item thatis different from the song content item) for the Counting Crows versionof the song, and may not necessarily reflect an overall popularity ofthe Counting Crows version of the song.

GUI 1100 provides video search results for the search query “Breathe.”As shown, video search result 1110 is associated with a song entitled“Breathe” by the artist Fabolous, video search result 1120 is associatedwith the artist Faith Hill, video search result 1130 is associated withthe artist Greenwheel and video search 1140 is associated with theartist Melissa Etheridge. The order in which the video search results1110-1140 are provided in GUI 1100 indicates a degree of popularity ofthe videos referred to by each search result. For example, video searchresult 1110 is provided at the top of the search results list, and thus,may have been determined to be more popular (and more likely to beresponsive to the search query) than video search result 1140, which isprovided at the bottom of the list. More particularly, and as shown inFIG. 8, the artist Fabolous' version of a song entitled “Breathe” isassociated with a perceived popularity of 125, while the Faith Hillversion is associated with a perceived popularity of 110 and the MelissaEtheridge version is associated with a perceived popularity of 25.

GUI 1200 provides video search results for the search query “Holiday.”As shown, video search result 1210 is associated with the song “Holiday”by the artist Green Day and video search result 1230 is associated witha song of the same name by the artist Madonna. A video search result1220 associated with the artist Billie Holiday also appears in thesearch result list because the artist name satisfies the search query“Holiday.” Again, the placement of the search results 1210-1230 in thesearch result list may be based on the popularity of the correspondingmusic-related item (e.g., particular song, music video for the song orartist) that has been determined to satisfy the search query. Forexample, the perceived popularity for the Green Day song “Holiday” is105 as shown in FIG. 8, and the perceived popularity for the Madonnaversion is 75, as also shown in FIG. 8. As such, the perceivedpopularity associated with the singer Billy Holiday is between 75 and105 because search result 1220 is provided in between search results1210 and 1230.

In addition to a perceived popularity for a content item, other criteriaalso may be used to rank search results presented in response to asearch query provided by a user. In some implementations, informationfrom a user's interest profile also may be used to determinepresentation of search results. For example, a user input the searchquery “Madonna.” Based on a perceived popularity, search results thatrefer to digital instances that describe the singer Madonna may bepresented more prominently than search results that refer to digitalinstances that involve religious connotations for the word “Madonna.”However, a user's interest profile may indicate a strong interest inreligious iconography. As such, the user's interest profile may be usedin combination with, or instead of, perceived popularity in rankingsearch results for this particular user. When user interest profileinformation is used in combination with perceived popularityinformation, and other possible criteria, each of the criteria may beindividually weighted to cause one or more of the criteria to have causea greater or lesser effect on the presentation of the search results.

More broadly applied, the concepts described herein may be implementedoutside the scope of Internet content searches exclusively yielding webpages. For instances the concepts may be applied to enable determinationof popularity for information revealed by the results of searchesagainst file archives or database records (e.g., which also may bereferred to as digital instances), where the results are ranked based ona determination of perceived popularity of content items described by,or embodied within, in those digital instances. In one implementation,the perceived popularity for a content item may be contrasted with awith a real popularity (e.g., frequency or absolute number of accesses)of the digital instance itself.

The described systems, methods, and techniques may be implemented indigital electronic circuitry, computer hardware, firmware, software, orin combinations of these elements. Apparatus embodying these techniquesmay include appropriate input and output devices, a computer processor,and a computer program product tangibly embodied in a machine-readablestorage device for execution by a programmable processor. A processembodying these techniques may be performed by a programmable processorexecuting a program of instructions to perform desired functions byoperating on input data and generating appropriate output. Thetechniques may be implemented in one or more computer programs that areexecutable on a programmable system including at least one programmableprocessor coupled to receive data and instructions from, and to transmitdata and instructions to, a data storage system, at least one inputdevice, and at least one output device. Each computer program may beimplemented in a high-level procedural or object-oriented programminglanguage, or in assembly or machine language if desired; and in anycase, the language may be a compiled or interpreted language. Suitableprocessors include, by way of example, both general and special purposemicroprocessors. Generally, a processor will receive instructions anddata from a read-only memory and/or a random access memory. Storagedevices suitable for tangibly embodying computer program instructionsand data include all forms of non-volatile memory, including by way ofexample semiconductor memory devices, such as Erasable ProgrammableRead-Only Memory (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-OnlyMemory (EEPROM), and flash memory devices; magnetic disks such asinternal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; andCompact Disc Read-Only Memory (CD-ROM). Any of the foregoing may besupplemented by, or incorporated in, specially-designed ASICs(application-specific integrated circuits).

It will be understood that various modifications may be made.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for providingsearch results, the method comprising the following operations performedby at least one processor: determining a first content item included ina first genre-specific catalog associated with a first search result anda second content item included in a second genre-specific catalogassociated with a second search result, the first and second searchresults being responsive to a query received from a device of a user;performing popularity queries for the first content item and the secondcontent item, the popularity queries being performed after receiving thequery; calculating, based on performing the popularity queries, aperceived popularity for the first content item and a perceivedpopularity for the second content item; determining a presentation ofthe first search result and the second search result based on thecalculated perceived popularity of the first content item and thecalculated perceived popularity of the second content item; andproviding instructions to display the determined presentation of thefirst and second search results on the device of the user.
 2. The methodof claim 1, wherein the perceived popularity of the first content itemand the perceived popularity of the second content item are calculatedby: determining popularity search results for the popularity queries forthe first and second content items by crawling the Internet for digitalinstances that include information that satisfies the popularityqueries.
 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: calculating theperceived popularity of the first content item based on a number ofpopularity search results determined for the popularity query for thefirst content item; and calculating the perceived popularity of thesecond content item based on a number of popularity search resultsdetermined for the popularity query for the second content item.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: identifying a first genre relatedto the first search result and a second genre related to the secondsearch result, the first genre and the second genre being differentgenres; and accessing the first genre-specific catalog associated withthe first genre and the second genre-specific catalog associated withthe second genre.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the firstgenre-specific catalog includes information specifying the perceivedpopularity of the first content item and the second genre-specificcatalog includes information specifying the perceived popularity of thesecond content item.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:displaying based on the provided instructions, the determinedpresentation of the first and second search results.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the first content item is one of a musical artist, asong, or a music album.
 8. A non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium storing instructions executable by at least one processor tocause the at least one processor to execute a method for providingsearch results in response to a query, the method comprising:determining a first content item included in a first genre-specificcatalog associated with a first search result and a second content itemincluded in a second genre-specific catalog associated with a secondsearch result, the first and second search results being responsive to aquery received from a device of a user; performing popularity queriesfor the first content item and the second content item, the popularityqueries being performed after receiving the query; calculating, based onperforming the popularity queries, a perceived popularity for the firstcontent item and a perceived popularity for the second content item;determining a presentation of the first search result and the secondsearch result based on the calculated perceived popularity of the firstcontent item and the calculated perceived popularity of the secondcontent item; and providing instructions to display the determinedpresentation of the first and second search results on the device of theuser.
 9. The medium of claim 8, wherein the perceived popularity of thefirst content item and the perceived popularity of the second contentitem are calculated by: determining popularity search results for thepopularity queries for the first and second content items by crawlingthe Internet for digital instances that include information thatsatisfies the popularity queries.
 10. The medium of claim 9, the methodfurther comprising: calculating the perceived popularity of the firstcontent item based on a number of popularity search results determinedfor the popularity query for the first content item; and calculating theperceived popularity of the second content item based on a number ofpopularity search results determined for the popularity query for thesecond content item.
 11. The medium of claim 8, the method furthercomprising: identifying a first genre related to the first search resultand a second genre related to the second search result, the first genreand the second genre being different genres; and accessing the firstgenre-specific catalog associated with the first genre and the secondgenre-specific catalog associated with the second genre.
 12. The mediumof claim 8, wherein the first genre-specific catalog includesinformation specifying the perceived popularity of the first contentitem and the second genre-specific catalog includes informationspecifying the perceived popularity of the second content item.
 13. Themedium of claim 8, the method further comprising: displaying, based onthe provided instructions, the determined presentation of the first andsecond search results.
 14. The medium of claim 8, wherein the firstcontent item is one of a musical artist, a song, or a music album.
 15. Asystem for providing search results in response to a query, comprising:a memory device that stores instructions; and at least one processorthat executes the instructions to: determine a first content itemincluded in a first genre-specific catalog associated with a firstsearch result and a second content item included in a secondgenre-specific catalog associated with a second search result, the firstand second search results being responsive to a query received from adevice of a user; perform popularity queries for the first content itemand the second content item, the popularity queries being performedafter receiving the query; calculate, based on the performed popularityqueries, a perceived popularity for the first content item and aperceived popularity for the second content item; determine apresentation of the first search result and the second search resultbased on the calculated perceived popularity of the first content itemand the calculated perceived popularity of the second content item; andprovide instructions to display the determined presentation of the firstand second search results on the device of the user.
 16. The system ofclaim 15, wherein the perceived popularity of the first content item andthe perceived popularity of the second content item are calculated by:determining popularity search results for the popularity queries for thefirst and second content items by crawling the Internet for digitalinstances that include information that satisfies the popularityqueries.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor furtherexecutes the instructions to: calculate the perceived popularity of thefirst content item based on a number of popularity search resultsdetermined for the popularity query for the first content item; andcalculate the perceived popularity of the second content item based on anumber of popularity search results determined for the popularity queryfor the second content item.
 18. The system of claim 15, wherein theprocessor further executes the instructions to: identify a first genrerelated to the first search result and a second genre related to thesecond search result, the first genre and the second genre beingdifferent genres; and access the first genre-specific catalog associatedwith the first genre and the second genre-specific catalog associatedwith the second genre.
 19. The system of claim 15, wherein the firstgenre-specific catalog includes information specifying the perceivedpopularity of the first content item and the second genre-specificcatalog includes information specifying the perceived popularity of thesecond content item.
 20. The system of claim 15, wherein the processorfurther executes the instructions to: display, based on the providedinstructions, the determined presentation of the first and second searchresults.